Wednesday, May 3, 2017

Banditry from Donbass Rapidly Spreading Back into and across Russia, Babchenko Says

Paul
Goble

Staunton, May 3 – Russia is rapidly
descending into “a swamp of illegality and unconstrained banditry” in large measure
because those features of the Donbass regimes Moscow has created are rapidly
spreading back into and across the country, according to Arkady Babchenko.

The Russian journalist says that he
predicted this when the Kremlin launched its efforts to create a “Novorossiya”
in 2014 because the absence of the rule of law in the various entities Moscow
imposed in the eastern portion of Ukraine would inevitably have an impact on life
in Russia itself (echo.msk.ru/programs/personalnovash/1972186-echo/).

Attacks on people and property, bank
robberies, and stealing from ATMs have become “almost a daily occurrence. The
law isn’t functioning. It still exists to some degree but it is being reduced
in importance ever more.” And even law enforcement officials acknowledge that
they are not able to fight either organized or street crime.

If the country doesn’t change its
domestic policies soon, Babchenko continues, it awaits “the fate of Somalia.”And while few want to acknowledge it, “the
level of criminality in Russia now exceeds the vaunted ‘wild 1990s.’”Soon people will avoid going out at night or
even without the company of others.

According to the Russian
commentator, “the current regime doesn’t need security and legal order” because
it shares the values of the criminals that the only thing that matters is
getting rich by whatever means are possible. Law for them is just one more
obstacle and, when they can, they ignore it or trample upon its principles.

Russians who have fought in the
Donbass, Nevzorov said, “have gotten a taste for easy money, easy blood, and
easy opportunities for satisfyingthemselves,” in short, all “the criminal joys.” And they don’t forget these when they return
home, yet another way that Putin’s war in Ukraine is harming Russia.